CAIRO: In an interview with Al Jazeera news channel Friday, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Mahdy Akef, praised the young generation of Brotherhood bloggers and highlighted the strong bonds between the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and their counterparts in Iran. "There are no differences between Brotherhood members inside and outside Egypt. We are all one party, raised on the same principle and sharing the same vision, he said. "The Brotherhood is and will always support the Palestinian cause with its different political currents, Akef said, stressing however that Fatah had made a mistake when it agreed to sign the Oslo and Madrid agreements with Israel. With regards to internal policy, Akef said that the group does not condone the idea of a Christian president but said that the Egyptian people should be the only ones to determine who their president will be. Akef had recently announced that he will not run for a second term in January 2010, stressing that there will be no crisis of leadership within the group and that there are no internal divisions. "There is no such thing as an extreme trend and another reformist trend. These different trends can be found in other political parties but not the Brotherhood. He criticized the fact that the Egyptian government refuses to open channels of dialogue with the group despite promises to do so. "It seems that the Egyptian regime would rather have a dialogue with Israel and the US than with us, Akef said. Akef also said that the MB welcomes the nomination of Gamal Mubarak, the son of current President Hosni Mubarak and chairman of the policies committee in the ruling National Democratic Party, in the coming presidential race. "But, as we have said before, Gamal Mubarak must first leave his father's palace and run for the presidency as a regular Egyptian citizen, he said. Commenting on his statements, Nabil Abdel Fattah, a political analyst at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, criticized Akef for focusing on religious ideology rather than acting like a true politician. "[His statement on Iran] is a fatal mistake, Abdel Fattah said. At a time that Iran is threatening the region's stability and Egypt's position as the leader of the Arab world, Akef should "have known better. His words "will certainly provoke the Egyptian government to act against the group and detain more of its members, Abdel Fattah added.
